Born in 1968 in Malaysia, Nadiah Bamadhaj was trained as a sculptor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She is currently based in Indonesia and produces work ranging from drawings to those in the video and digital medium.‘Moments in the Life of a Participant’ is a site-specific installation first exhibited at the Yogyakarta Biennale 2005 in the Khandang Menjangan (Deer’s Cage), a lookout structure belonging to the Yogyakarta ‘kraton’ (palace) that earlier rulers of the sultanate had used whilst deer hunting. In an attempt at ‘humanising’ the structure, Bamadhaj created a typically Indonesian persona, akin to a living person, who undergoes various rites of passage and life episodes. Having scoured a local archives for black and white images of Indonesian social life, Bamadhaj then digitally inserted Khandang Menjangan into the images, creating 20 photographs which were then placed within the monument itself.
